Tag: Coincidence

Cisco Ordered To Cough Up $2 Billion Plus Royalties After Ripping Off Biz’s Cybersecurity Patents

Cisco has been hit with a massive $1.9 billion patent-infringement bill for copying cybersecurity tech from Centripetal Networks and pushing the company out of lucrative government contracts. The Register reports: The network switch maker infringed four patents, a Virginia court decided on Monday, but since the infringement was “willful and egregious,” the judge multiplied the $756 million owed by 2.5 to…

Meet the Pi planet. It orbits its star every 3.14 days

In a fun cosmic coincidence, researchers used old Kepler spacecraft data to discover an Earth-sized exoplanet with an orbital period of 3.14 days, a number that matches the mathematical constant pi. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/pi-exoplanet-k2-315b-has-3-14-day-orbit…

Did this mass extinction event trigger dawn of the dinosaurs?

New research suggests that a series of huge volcanic eruptions, 233 million years ago, led to a mass extinction event that heralded the dawn of the dinosaurs. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/mass-extinction-event-trigger-dawn-of-dinosaurs…

European Spacecraft Flying Past Venus Will Now Look for Signs of Life

“Earlier this week, scientists announced the discovery of phosphine on Venus, a potential signature of life. Now, in an amazing coincidence, a European and Japanese spacecraft is about to fly past the planet — and could confirm the discovery,” writes Forbes. Slashdot reader Iwastheone shares their report: BepiColombo, launched in 2018, is on its way to enter orbit around Mercury, the…

‘If Everyone Hates Object-Oriented Programming, Why Is It Still So Widely Spread?’

Object-oriented programming “has been wildly successful. But was the success just a coincidence?” asks Stack Overflow’s blog: Asking why so many widely-used languages are OOP might be mixing up cause and effect. Richard Feldman argues in his talk that it might just be coincidence. C++ was developed in the early 1980s by Bjarne Stroustrup, initially as a set of extensions to…

Japan’s Longest-Serving PM, Shinzo Abe, Resigns For Health Reasons

Late last night, it was rumored that Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, would step down due to his struggle with ulcerative colitis. Abe confirmed the reports this morning, telling reporters that it was “gut wrenching” to leave many of his goals unfinished. He also apologized for stepping down during the pandemic. The Associated Press reports: Abe has had ulcerative colitis…

Year’s farthest quarter moon July 12

The year’s farthest quarter moon – yet the year’s closest lunar apogee – both fall on July 12, 2020. Coincidence? [video src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Orbit_of_the_Moon_in_2013.ogv" poster="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Orbit_of_the_Moon_in_2013.ogv"]Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/years-farthest-quarter-moon-july-12…

Venus brightest, near star Aldebaran, around July 10

Even though – as seen from Earth – Venus appears only slightly more than 1/4 illuminated on July 10, 2020, it is nonetheless shining at its brightest in our morning sky! Look east before sunup for Venus. The bright star nearby is Aldebaran. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/venus-morning-milestone-on-july-10…